How to Tweet From Mountain Lion

Tweet in 10 Seconds Flat From Mac OS X

Tweeting dynamos, listen up: you can send micromessages in 10 seconds flat (or less!) from a Mac, and your fellow geeks are about to show you how.

Apple's latest operating system for Mac, Mountain Lion ($20), has built-in Twitter sharing that makes tweeting pics from your desktop and links from Safari faster than ever. And for other important info, like URLs from emails, quotes from ebooks, or highlighted text in non-Safari browsers, we've got a guide to using a quick Twitter for Mac shortcut (free).

Become a social-media maven by streamlining your workflow with these four ways to take advantage of Mountain Lion's superspeedy Twitter integration.

Step One: Set Up

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Before you go about tweeting up a storm, set up your Twitter accounts (Mountain Lion can support more than one account).

Use Spotlight to access Twitter setup: hit command + spacebar (the magnifying glass in the top right of your screen will activate), type "Twitter," and click on "Mail, Contacts, & Calendars."

That will bring up the window pictured here. Add multiple accounts by clicking the plus (+) button in the bottom-left corner.

Picture Files

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Any type of image file (.jpg, .gif, .tiff) or screenshot on your desktop can be uploaded to Twitpic by right-clicking (or control + click) > Share > Twitter.

Picture Files

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A window will appear with a character counter and an optional "Add Location" button. Compose your tweet (the shortened link for the picture is already factored into the character count) and double check that you're tweeting from the correct account in the upper right.

Picture files don't have to be on the desktop to be tweeted. You can right-click (or command + click) on image files to insta-tweet from any folder on your computer, or from the iPhoto and Photo Booth applications.

Links From Safari

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That arrow is not, in fact, a refresh button (old habits die hard) — it's a one-click share tool! In Safari, click this icon to automatically shorten and tweet links.

Links From Safari

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Unlike sharing pictures from your desktop, the tweet window that pops up in Safari can't be moved around and doesn't "float" on top of other application windows.

Again, double check that you're tweeting from the right account!

Using the Twitter Desktop App

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Mountain Lion's built-in Twitter sharing is great, but there's a lot it still can't do — like tweeting highlighted text. Downloading Twitter's desktop app for Mac solves that issue, and Mountain Lion will recognize the app as a Twitter client.

Say, for example, you were listening to NPR's All Songs 24/7 Music Channel and you really liked a song that just aired. Highlight the song with your cursor, right-click (or control + click), and select "Tweet."

Using the Twitter Desktop App

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The Twitter for Mac app will open and copy the highlighted text into a compose window automatically. Add your microreview, and tweet away!

The Twitter desktop app can also be set up for multiple accounts in Preferences (command + comma).

Highlight emailed links or URLs in the other browser, right-click (or control + click), and hit Tweet. This will open the Twitter app and paste the link into a compose window automatically. Even though the entire link appears, the app will shorten the URL automatically.